Community urges Alliance to stop anti-union campaign
News
April 13, 2018
Community urges Alliance to stop anti-union campaign

Educators from Alliance College-Ready Public Schools took their fight for a union to the charter chain’s home office in downtown LA on March 1. Backed by parents and community, labor, and elected leaders, the teachers called on Alliance CEO Dan Katzir to end the well-funded anti-union campaign and allow educators their right to make the decision about unionization without interference or coercion.

They expect us to work in classrooms filled to the brim
News
April 13, 2018
“They expect us to work in classrooms filled to the brim”

Social studies teacher Erica Huerta has seen both the good and the bad in class sizes during her 19 years with LAUSD. On the good side, she points to the small class sizes she had in her former Small Learning Community, where the teachers were able to collaborate with each other and create cross-curricular project-based assessments. With the personalization that lower class sizes allow, students made tremendous gains in graduation rates, college attendance, and overall learning growth.

West Virginia educators protesting
President's Perspective
April 13, 2018
“All In” for a fair contract and a future for public schools

As youth movements catapult school issues powerfully onto the national stage, now educator strikes are ripping through the country—making this arguably one of the most important moments in U.S. history for public education. West Virginia, Puerto Rico, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona. School funding, teacher salaries, privatization, learning conditions, learning supplies, working conditions, healthcare, pensions—they are all now front and center in the national debate.

Parents say: Ref resign now and hands off our schools
News
April 13, 2018
Parents say: Ref resign now and hands off our schools

With a rallying cry of “justice!” parents and community members led the charge outside the LAUSD School Board meeting April 10, denouncing the board majority for allowing the aggressive colocation of public schools and for keeping criminally indicted Ref Rodriguez in his seat for the most influential vote of his career: selecting the next superintendent.

Recent LAUSD graduate Quazi Jahaiara frames the student perspective on the need to boost school funding by closing tax loopholes for hedge fund and private equity managers
News
April 13, 2018
New bill targets tax loophole for hedge-fund managers

Parents, educators, students, and community members stood united in Sacramento last month to announce a new bill, AB 2731, to generate funding for public schools and civic priorities. Sponsored by Assemblymember Mike Gipson and Reclaim Our Schools LA, the bill would close the carried interest tax loophole that allows hedge-fund managers to pay a substantially reduced federal tax rate on some of their income.

Vanalden Elementary teacher Bradley Upshaw is one of only five educators named this year to the National Teachers Hall of Fame.
News
April 13, 2018
Meet our new Hall of Famer

Joining the company of legendary Garfield High math teacher Jaime Escalante, Vanalden Elementary teacher Bradley Upshaw has been named to the National Teachers Hall of Fame. The nonprofit organization recognizes just five teachers a year who demonstrate extraordinary passion and commitment to their students and profession. Upshaw and Escalante are the only LAUSD representatives in the Hall of Fame.

Alex Caputo-Pearl with his daughter Ella and the Reclaim Our Schools Organizers outside the offices of privatizer Bill Siart in February. In a followup to the protest outside the Netflix building in December, parents, students, and educators called for Siart and his billionaire friends to stop spending millions of dollars each year to privatize public education and to instead work with the community to get all students and all schools the resources they deserve.
President's Perspective
March 2, 2018
The fight for healthy, safe schools

On a weekend a couple of months ago, I was walking out of a store on Jefferson Boulevard in southwest LA when I heard a couple of familiar voices: Dorsey High School students Tayah Hubbard and Christabel Ukomadu.